Victims

Victims of anti-smoking policies.

This is a list of people who have suffered from rules and restrictions put in place to prevent people from smoking, especially indoors.

Contrast with the purported victims of SHS for whom the rules were put in place with no evidence for SHS to back them up.

More victims may be found in The Smokers' Graveyard

Named individuals

Jon Bird

A restaurant owner sprayed a fire extinguisher in the face of a man who refused to put out his cigarette while smoking outside the business.

The man, identified by local media as Alex Jamison, can be seen in a video which is circulating online threatening to put out the smoker’s cigarette with the small portable fire extinguisher.

When the smoker, Jon Bird, defiantly takes another drag Mr Jamison lifts the device and fires a jet of white powder straight into Mr Bird’s face.

Beulah Toombs

A grandmother who has been smoking most of her 89 years is being kicked out of her home because she won’t quit smoking.

It’s a Housing & Urban Development section 202 home for low-income seniors, but it is privately owned. The smoking grandmother is Buelah Toombs, who prefers Dorals.

HUD, by law, cannot mandate what a private owner does, but HUD is moving ahead anyway.

Beulah Toombs started smoking a long time ago. She isn’t sure exactly when, but she was young. Maybe it was 1935, the year Babe Ruth quit playing baseball. Or maybe 1939, the year “The Grapes of Wrath” was published. But it was definitely before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Emma Martin

A Gold Coast disability pensioner has allegedly been savagely beaten and kicked to the ground for smoking a cigarette in an underground carpark.

Emma Martin and her friend were in the carpark of their Southport apartment building when they were approached by fellow tenant, Rewi Borell, who argued the 36-year-old was not allowed to smoke at the location

Eduard Assylov

Eduard Assylov, a 37-year-old motor mechanic, was stabbed to death and his head, limbs and genitals chopped off with a knife.

His roommate confessed to the crime and said that had become fed up with Assylov's smoking, and had eventually 'gone berserk' when the mechanic lit up in their home.

Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann

Feeling the need to incessantly hector smokers can have dire repercussions...

The calls come after the death of Melbourne heart surgeon Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann, who was allegedly punched in the head in the foyer of Box Hill Hospital after expressing concern about people smoking near the hospital entrance.

It is alleged Esmaili had followed Dr Pritzwald-Stegmann into the foyer of Box Hill Hospital and allegedly hit the surgeon's head from behind.

The heart surgeon told Esmaili off for smoking in the non-smoking area outside the front entrance of Box Hill Hospital.

Esmaili was visiting a patient with friends.

The court heard Esmaili had been suffering from drug withdrawals and psychiatric illness, and he did not apply for bail.

Shannon Vincel

August 16, 2016, 46 yr old Shannon Vincel was attacked in a area popular with smokers outside the grounds of a non-smoking cancer treatment centre property late evening on Monday 15th August. She died the next day.

Shannon Vincel, of Springfield, Mo., was hit in the head with an unidentified object as she sat on a folding chair with another person outside the hotel facility about a mile from the hospital about 9:30 p.m. Monday, according to a statement from Zion police.

I wonder why Shannon Vincel was sitting out on the street outside the Cancer Treatment Center at 10 pm at night? There was no explanation for it in any of the news reports I read, or any of the news video clips I watched. Nor any explanation for why this area was so ‘popular’ with patients.

[...]

The reporter didn’t mention smoking. But she was standing outside the Center near the spot where Shannon Vincel was murdered (above), and right behind her was a big sign that said: “Entering a smoke free campus. NO SMOKING.”

[...]

And then the penny dropped. The ‘popular area’ was where patients went to smoke and chat. Maybe she didn’t even smoke, but had gone outside to be with a smoking friend.

Dean George

April 2016, 40 yr old prisoner commits suicide because jail introduces smoking ban.

A prisoner has killed himself after allegedly being stopped from smoking in Swansea jail.

Inmate Dean George, 40, was found dead in his cell at one of eight jails trialling the "no smoking" ban on health grounds.

Prison Service chiefs are investigating his death at Swansea prison which started the smoking ban four months ago.

Other prisoners say tensions are running high over the smoking ban - and that George had threatened to kill himself.

Eric Garner

July 2015, 48 yr old Eric Garner was arrested for selling untaxed cigarettes. During the arrest he was put into a chokehold, and in a video taken at the time appeared to have his head slammed against the sidewalk. He later died as a result of his treatment by the police, prompting some to ask "Is Selling Untaxed Cigarettes Now a Capital Offense":

Garner didn’t die of lung cancer or emphysema. He died during a struggle with at least five police officers as he protested repeatedly that he couldn’t breathe. If the video is accurate, the officers escalated the physical confrontation rather quickly. One appeared to put Garner in a chokehold.

Andy Nowicki

April 2014, World War II veteran Andy Nowicki was at the center of a conflict over the Newington Housing Authority's newly enacted no smoking policy. Having lived there for 20 years, he was in the middle of being evicted for having the temerity to smoke in his own house, and also smoke within 10 feet of the property. He died in the middle of it all, aged 90, from a stroke.

Housing Authority Executive Director Melinda Harvey defended the authority Tuesday, saying Nowicki had been caught smoking in violation of the settlement and therefore had to vacate his apartment.

"He continued to not comply," Harvey said. "So we contacted Paul [Doyle] and met with him."

Jonathan Brace

April 2013, Jonathan, a 33 yr old software engineer, died because his mother forbade him to smoke in the house. Instead he sat on the window ledge of his bedroom, from which he apparently fell 20 ft hitting his head on the patio below one evening. His mother found him the following morning.

Lorraine Adolph

December 2008, Lorraine, 68, - a patient at Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Canada, went out in sub-zero temperatures to have a cigarette. She was found one week later, frozen to death, 400 meters from the building.

David Arnett

David, 12, committed suicide rather than admit to his parents he'd been smoking. After smelling smoke on him and finding cigarettes, his form tutor gave him 24 hours to own up to his parents before the school contacted them. David strangled himself with his school tie while his father was preparing dinner.

Dana Blake

April 2003, Dana, a bouncer in a New York night club, was stabbed to death in a fight that started when Dana tried to evict a patron who was flouting the newly enacted smoking ban two weeks previously.

Travis Keyes, the owner of B3, a bar next door, didn't hesitate to blame the new law, which has been billed as a way to safeguard the health of pub employees.

"It all started over a cigarette," said Keyes, who helped chase down the Chans. "It's so ironic: Something that's supposed to save lives has already taken a life."

Isaias Umali, not one of those involved with the initial flouting of the smoking ban, was convicted of First Degree manslaughter, and sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Elena Brennan

Shortly after 6am on 13th July 2011, Elena Brennan was discovered by a passing private ambulance driver dead, still in her dressing gown, from massive head injury she sustained after falling 20 feet onto a concrete ramp beneath her second storey flat (3rd floor in the US). The inquest found that she'd fallen from her window because she had been leaning out of the window to have a cigarette.

Barry Collen

January 2008, Barry Collen (74) was found frozen to death at 4.30am at his care home in Winnipeg, Canada, after going outside in -20°C temperatures at 1am for a cigarette

"He was banned from the smoking room, for smoking too much."

Jane O'Grady

In October 2011, it was reported that Ms O'Grady, a 97 year old, was threatened with eviction from her independent living facility. Her smoking wasn't a problem when she moved in in 2005, but in 2008, The Lakes at Pointe West implemented a no-smoking policy.

In a letter to the media in Feb 2012, The Lakes stated they wanted her to either stop smoking, or move to accomodation where she can be given mobility assistance to smoke outside because of the other 197 residents. Ms O'Grady wants neither.

Jane died 20th Feb 2012

Matthew Long

August 2007, Matthew fell 2½ft from a brick terrace into the car park, and was brain-damaged from the fall. He went on to sue the owners of the pub for encouraging use of the area without putting warning signs up. His sister is quoted as saying "He smoked only ten cigarettes a day but he must be the worst victim of the smoking ban. If he hadn't had to step outside to light up it would never have happened."

Miles Patterson

January 2008, Miles, 65, a resident of Manitoulin Lodge in Gore Bay, Ontario, Canada was found suffering from hypothermia after he'd gone outside for a cigarette "sometime after the established smoking period". He later died after being admitted to hospital.

Angel Raich

Angel, 46, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor early 2012. In April 2012 she was kicked out of University of California, San Francisco (USCF) Parnassus campus for using medical marijuana. USCF stated:

UCSF is a smoke-free campus and this includes medical marijuana. Several members of the media have asked if UCSF allows the use of a vaporized form of marijuana. It does not. Even a vaporized form of medical marijuana releases particles in the air that are damaging to the lung. Any particles from vapor and odor could have an impact on other patients and hospital employees.

Apparently unrelated, USCF conducts studies to test the effacacy of medical marijuana on patients with chronic pain.

Richard Read

On the 29th October 2011, Richard Read, 61, suffered severe burns, and subsequently died, after he accidentally fumbled with the Zippo lighting his pipe while sitting in his parked car outside of his home. The dropped zippo caused the car to catch alight and subsequently explode.

It appears he had a stroke.

Stacey Solomon

Stacey is an English singer, television presenter and reality TV star, who rose to fame during the sixth series of X-Factor. She was photographed smoking when she was seven months pregnant, even though she was trying to give up. As a result FoxyBingo sacked her as a judge on their 'Foxy Mum' panel, and dropped her from their shortlist for Celeb Mum of the Year 2012[archive]

Lawrence Walker

In June 2008, taxman Lawrence Walker committed suicide by jumping off cliffs in Newquay after the smoking ban left him a virtual recluse.

Eamonn Mulvenna

October 22nd, 2005, Eamonn, 20, fell from a 2nd-floor fire escape when he was having a cigarette, due to a smoking ban within Whispers club.

The inquest heard that as a result of the smoking ban Whispers lap-dancing club had allowed customers to go out a fire exit on to the fire escape that was 27 feet above an alleyway.

Unnamed people or groups

One dead, three injured in smoking area, Hythe Quay, Maldon

A murder inquiry was under way last night after a car smashed into a pub smoking shelter, killing one and injuring three others.

Drinkers were left pinned against a wall after the Nissan Qashqai mounted a pavement and careered into the outdoor porch.

[...]

Witnesses said the driver did not appear to apply the brakes – raising fears it was a deliberate attack.

Health Workers in Australia

So, when people get in your face and demand you stop smoking outside...

Rules banning smoking outside Victoria's public hospitals could be reviewed because health workers are being attacked and abused while trying to police the policy.

[...]

The calls come after the death of Melbourne heart surgeon Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann, who was allegedly punched in the head in the foyer of Box Hill Hospital after expressing concern about people smoking near the hospital entrance.

Last month two patient transport officers were reportedly assaulted outside Dandenong Hospital after refusing a request for a cigarette.

Ambulance union state secretary Steve McGhie said one of the officers had surgery because of an injury sustained in the assault.

Psychiatric Patients in New Zealand

August 2016, lawyer goes to court to argue that non-smoking policies in psychiatric facilities actually prolongs the incarciration time that patients spend there.

Mr Francois said nicotine withdrawals mirror the symptoms of a mental illness and can be misinterpreted by staff - leading to patients spending longer in an institution than necessary.

"Those symptoms are interpreted by nurses and staff as just being another signal, another sign, of how insane they are."

Six Irish students (one with dual American nationality), Berkely, Calafornia, USA

June 2015:

Early Tuesday, 13 people, most of them young Irish students here on the visa program, were crowded onto a fourth-floor balcony off Unit 405 for what neighbors described as a loud party when the balcony collapsed, sending people tumbling onto the street below.

Six people were killed; five were Irish and the sixth had dual Irish-American citizenship, according to the Irish Embassy. Three of the dead were men, three were women, and all were in their 20s. At least seven others suffered injuries, some serious.

[...]

Residents here said that apartments were often crammed with students trying to hold down living costs, and that people typically went out to the balcony to smoke.

Female Backpacker, Scotland

2004, a female backpacker was found dead at 3am after falling off the roof of a hostel. One theory is that she climbed on to the flat roof of the no-smoking Edinburgh Backpackers hostel for a cigarette.

Female Students

September 2011, on-campus students University of Montana must go to the edge of the campus to have a cigarette. Female students have been discouraged from walking across campus alone at night for their own safety. Previously ashtrays were placed 25 feet away from entrances but they were all moved to the edge of the campus as part of the new policy.

Scottish care home residents

February 2012, Canmore Lodge, Dunfermline bans smoking; spokesman for the care home said: “Canmore Lodge can confirm that they will be closing the smoking room at the home as the health and wellbeing of our residents is always our utmost priority." Instead they will have to use, in winter as well as summer what amounts to, as one relative called it "basically a bus shelter."

Unnamed Barmaid

A bar manager blames the smoking ban for one of his staff being raped while going outside for a cigarette. Councilman Bill Sova says it's inappropriate to blame the ban. "It should be Calantino's [manger's] responsibility to ensure his employees and patrons are safe."

Unnamed Hospital Patient

One evening in December 2000, a 54 year old patient at Seven Oaks General Hospital in Winnipeg was trapped outside in -30°C temperatures in only her hospital gown, when the door locked behind her and she couldn't find another way in. She was found, comatose, an hour later suffering from hypothermia and frostbite to her hands and feet. Four fingers on her right hand had to be amputated. She was left with limited mobility in her left hand.

Unnamed Tourist

Around 11pm on 2nd April 2010, a 25 yr old German Tourist was dragged from the street and raped in an alleyway while having a cigarette outside a Covent Garden restaurant.